Doctor Who: Fugitive of the Judoon (12x05)

This episode was one shock after the other! Dang!

Cons:

I'm really excited about all of these big developments, I really am. But at the same time, yikes! We went from having very little overarching plot in Season Eleven, to having a bajillion things going on in this season! The Master, the destruction of Gallifrey, this new Doctor that our Doctor doesn't recognize, the return of Jack Harkness, the Cybermen... it's all piling up! Now, rather than being worried about not having enough to sustain a season, I'm more worried that overcrowded storytelling is going to make it difficult for all of these various plot points to land! I shouldn't judge too soon, but... wow! There's a ton happening here!

The only thing that I think got lost in the shuffle this week was the Doctor's relationship with her companions. I really liked that moment of solidarity at the end, but it fell slightly flat because the Doctor didn't seem to notice or care when first Graham, and then Yaz and Ryan, were taken. We as the audience know that they're all fine, but it bothers me that the Doctor wasn't more worried.

Pros:

I don't even know where to start, this episode kicked so much ass!

Jack Harkness, light of my life... when I saw him, my brain exploded. It's been a decade, y'all. I loved everything about his reappearance. The fact that he'd stolen a ship, the way the technology kept glitching, the big kiss that he gave Graham, mistaking him for the Doctor... it was all so lovely. It was also a nice touch to have Graham correct Jack about the Doctor's new pronouns. He never messed it up again, after he learned. Yay Jack! And he comes with a dire warning about the Cybermen, which is just so interesting and adds so much intrigue to whatever comes next. I've gotta say, I really hope that wasn't John Barrowman's only appearance this season. To bring Jack back, and then not have him meet the new regeneration of the Doctor... that would be such a waste.

I really, really loved the slow-burn mystery with Ruth, and the reveal of who she is. There's so much about this that works for me. You have a perfectly nice, perfectly interesting woman going about her business. Her husband seems kind of sketchy, and seems to be hiding something. Aliens show up. The Doctor gets involved. The mystery continues, as it becomes clear that Ruth is missing pieces of memory. And then... the TARDIS, buried in the ground. Ruth remembering who she really is. Each successive piece of the puzzle had me getting more and more interested in where it was all going. We have a precedent for this, of the Doctor consenting to have their memory erased for their own protection. And yet even with all of the clues leading up to it, the actual reveal was still super powerful. I was thinking Ruth might be a sleeper Time Lord, as it were. But for her to be the Doctor? Dang!

And the hits don't stop there - the fact that these two versions of the Doctor don't remember each other means that something really weird is going on. If Ruth!Doctor isn't from our Doctor's future, and vice versa... do we have multiple dimensions going on? What does it meannnnn?! I am so excited to find out.

I also liked the way that this new version of the Doctor seemed to be so similar to what we'd expect, but also had several key differences. She's fast-talking and clever and can be a bit of a snob - that all tracks. But the fact that she brandishes a weapon, and lets her enemy self-destruct when she could have said something to stop it? Yikes. Clearly there's a lot going on here that we don't know about.

The final scene in the TARDIS with the Doctor and her fam was really powerful. She tries to shut down, to keep distance from them. Earlier in the episode, we learn that she's been leaving them for stretches of time to hunt for the Master, and hasn't been including them in that part of her life. And here, she tries to pull the same trick again, somewhat angrily telling them that they don't really know her. And Ryan, Yaz, and Graham decide not to take that lying down. They tell her no, that they're her family, and they will be here with her as she figures out what's going on. I've really grown to care about this little gang of travelers, and I think this scene was the perfect example of what's so special about them. They are kind people who really care about each other, and they won't let the mysteries of the Doctor's complicated life stand in the way of their relationships.

I'm a little bit overwhelmed with all of the new information this episode imparted. Jack, Cybermen, another Doctor... but I'm definitely on board to find out what comes next!

8.5/10